2009 Windows IT Pro Editors' Best and Community Choice Awards

Picking a favorite product from an impressive crowd of competitive offerings is never an easy task, and such was the case with our Editors' Best and Community Choice awards this year. The former award program highlights products that Windows IT Pro editors and contributors believe are worthy of recognition, whereas the latter program turned that process over to you, our readers.

Our Community Choice awards allowed readers to decide which products and services were chosen for acclaim and recognition. Rather than presenting a predefined list of products and services that limited your selection to choices our editorial team had already made, this year we decided to open up the process to everyone and let you determine the products and services that were worthy of inclusion in our final voting phase. We also encouraged IT pros to submit comments about why they selected the products they did, so you'll see lots of insightful comments and real-world wisdom from IT pros about their favorite products on the pages that follow.

Unlike last year—when we treated both award programs as separate entities—we decided to merge both of these award programs together this year. We've listed the top three Editors' Best products in each category directly adjacent to our Community Choice winners. Sometimes our editors and readers agree on what products and services were best in a given category, and sometimes they didn't. Yet regardless of whether these winners were picked by editors or readers, one thing is certain: All these awards recognize products and services that are considered the best of the best in their respective categories.

By presenting our Community Choice and Editors' Best award picks next to each other this year, we're hoping we'll encourage some dialogue about the selections that were made. Do you agree with the choices our editors have made? Or do the picks that our readers have made carry more weight? Please let us know what you think by emailing us your comments, or by visiting our online forums and writing a post or two.

"Spiceworks is arguably the best of a new breed of free, web-based services for IT pros that combine impressive feature sets with active, online communities of active IT pros." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"Designing and configuring a full-blown SNMP-based network management system (NMS) console can be an expensive and time-consuming process. Spiceworks eliminates the tedium and lowers the up-front cost by delivering an NMS console as a web service hosted offsite." —Mel Beckman, contributing editor, SQL Server Magazine

"There are a lot of PowerShell scripting and GUI tools on the market these days, but PowerGUI remains one of the best, and it's free!" —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Microsoft's Sysinternals Suite … "You might not need all of these tools, but the ones you do need are absolutely essential." "No IT pro can afford to be without these tools." "A must-have collection for the serious admin."

"SDM Software's GPExpert Group Policy Automation Engine 2.0 is a tool that helps the Group Policy–challenged manage Group Policy as though they were Group Policy experts."—Caroline Marwitz, associate editor, Windows IT Pro

"SDM products and free utilities allow the most powerful GPO management. SDM Software clearly shows its leadership in Group Policy management products with innovative solutions that no one else provides. The company led the way in automation of Group Policy management with its Group Policy Automation Engine and free PowerShell GPMC cmdlets—which I personally value highly. These technologies were introduced by SDM long before Microsoft provided limited functionality in Windows 7."—Guido Grillenmeier, contributor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about ScriptLogic's Active Administrator… "I believe it's the best AD resource on the market and priced perfectly." "Lets you recover that OU and save embarrassment and time." "Wonderfully comprehensive tool set for managing AD."

"\[Tripwire's\] leading platform-integrity-checking software allows for advanced data anad system protection and centralized monitoring. It's a great tool for compliance purposes."—Jan De Clercq, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Tripwire is an effective tool for protecting your network. The product is a great security add-on, regardless of your primary intrusion-detection software."—Mark Joseph Edwards, senior contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Sunbelt Software's VIPRE Enterprise … "Easy to deploy, excellent value, low machine overhead." "Least use of memory, least impact to system and processes, performs as well (perhaps better) than the biggies." "Totally reliable, catches and defends the environment more than any other product, and has the lowest CPU usage." "It's fast and light on system resources. It's also not just antivirus (quarantine or delete files) but provides a brute-force clean-up of the crud left behind by malware (including dummy files, registry settings, DNS entries, and browser help objects)." Best Auditing and Compliance Product

"Keeping your IT infrastructure in compliance with the many different corporate governance rules and regulations can be an arduous task. It is expensive and is aimed at larger enterprises, but Symantec Control Compliance Suite can help ease the compliance burden immensely."—Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"It's a big product to cover a big problem, but Symantec Control Compliance Suite gives you many options for deployment. It has broad platform support for multi-OS environments, runs agentless or agent-based, and features many out-of-the-box policies for common regulations, such as SOX and PCI, as well as letting you define policies specific to your environment."—B. K. Winstead, associate editor, Windows IT Pro

"Backup Exec has become the industry standard for simple and easy-to-use backup solutions for small to midsized businesses (SMBs). Symantec and Dell even teamed up last year to provide a complete turn-key solution, which I wrote about in my review, 'Dell PowerVault DL2000 Powered by Symantec' (InstantDoc ID 101476)." —Eric B. Rux, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Backup Exec is probably the most well-known backup application amongst IT pros—and with good reason. Able to back up myriad sources from flat files straight up to multi-instance SQL Server databases and store the backups on both disk and tape, this product has only gotten better with each version. It's particularly handy in the heterogeneous environments everyone has today because it can back up non-Windows platforms." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Symantec's Backup Exec … "With Backup Exec, I no longer worry about data loss. Recovery time is quick, and backup and restore management is very convenient." "Well laid out, reliable, great new features. Backing up Exchange Server is a breeze." "Easy to use, with superior granular-recovery functionality." Best Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool

“What I like about Tableau 5.0 is that SQL Server professionals don’t have to spend a lot of time training business users on how to use it—anyone can quickly learn to use this product to create active dashboards and reports and analyze data, as long as they have access to the Internet. Tableau 5.0 also lets you tie in to multiple data sources and create interactive visualizations that help you better understand your data, and therefore help you make informed business decisions, faster.”—Megan Keller, associate editor, SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro

“Filling the gaping hole left by Microsoft’s absorption of ProClarity, Strategy Companion Analyzer is the best solution to complete the Microsoft BI platform. For analysts, power users and general report consumers Analyzer supports the full range of SQL Server Analysis Services features. It has a zero-footprint client interface, making it simple to deploy and manage with delivery options for SharePoint, Excel and Internet Explorer. Analyzer offers a powerful and intuitive set of analysis tools and visualizations that let business users make more confident decisions”—Douglas McDowell, contributor, Windows IT Pro

"Giving stakeholders the information they need in a format they can understand is invaluable, and Tableau 5.0 does that better than just about any other BI tool."—Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

“Although Amazon Web Services isn't cheaper than running your own server in the long run—even in a hosted colocation facility—the ability to rapidly spin up additional capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis is extremely valuable. Amazon Web Services' management tools have become very mature, while staying easy to use, so you can easily and cheaply add Amazon Web Services to your bag of application hosting tricks.” —Mel Beckman, contributing editor, SQL Server Magazine

"Google is a pioneer in offering applications in the cloud, and Google Apps has emerged—in some use cases—as a viable alternative to competing traditional IT solutions. It may not be a good fit for many organizations, but Google Apps is definitely making an impact." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"Analysis Services' presence is becoming stronger throughout enterprises as more companies are realizing and adopting BI-related solutions and platforms. Analysis Services Professionals have had to rely on out-of-the-box APIs, counters, and traces to obtain Analysis Services monitoring capabilities. With the release of SQLSentry's Performance Advisor for Analysis Services, this is no longer the case. The Performance Advisor for Analysis Services product makes for a great companion tool for the Analysis Services Professional." —Derek Comingore, contributor, Windows IT Pro

“What I most appreciate about Performance Advisor for Analysis Services is that it lets you monitor SQL Server Analysis Services’ (SSAS’) resource utilization in real-time mode or historic mode, then easily troubleshoot bottlenecks from its intuitive Performance Dashboard for SSAS. It also offers monitoring and alerting for SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Server Integration Services, so you can keep an eye on Microsoft’s entire BI platform from one console.” —Megan Keller, associate editor, SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro

"SmartDeploy is a well thought-out deployment solution. It overcomes one of the major drawbacks of standard disk-imaging solutions—having to create a master image for each hardware platform—by providing Platform Packs to download at no additional cost." —Eric B. Rux, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"SmartDeploy gives IT pros a range of excellent templates and wizards to use through the deployment process, letting them same time and money and focus on more pressing problems. SmartDeploy is something that any IT pro tasked with deploying PCs should take a look at." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Symantec's Symantec Ghost … "This is, hands down, the best tool for quick, non-ghosted deployments." "It just always works!" "Creating and deploying images is a snap." Best Development Tool

“I’ve been using Dreamweaver for web development—personally and professionally—for more than a decade. No other web development app combines so many features with such an easy to use interface. Whether you’re a DBA, IT pro, or end user, Dreamweaver is the best tool for the job.” —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

“TestComple simplifies the entire testing process with the help of a powerful and lightweight integrated environment. It does the job of testing various applications very nicely.”—Anand Narayanaswamy, technical editor, DevConnections

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Adobe's Adobe Dreamweaver … "This web editor simply does everything." "Everything is faster, easier, and more intuitive with Dreamweaver." "Very highly recommended to anyone building websites."

"The ProLiant line of servers is likely represented in every datacenter in existence. The DL360 and DL380 are the workhorses of many IT shops and for good reason: reasonably priced, extensive support options, and a myriad of configurations." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Hardware is hardware. The CPU comes from Intel or AMD, the hard drives are industry-standard, and the memory is OEM'd from Korea. The real question is, 'Who is going to answer the phone when you have a problem?' HP support is rock solid. Period." —Eric B. Rux, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about HP's ProLiant DL380 servers … "Excellent power, reliability, and manageability for a solid price." "HP products always have fewer problems than those of other vendors." "Reasonably priced, reliable, and highly expandable." Best Hardware: Workstation

"Designed for intensive tasks such as computer-aided design/engineering, scientific applications, and digital content creation, Lenovo's ThinkStation S20 is a powerhouse. This desktop workstation packs a whopping amount of power into an affordable price point for any organization." —Douglas Toombs, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Dell's OptiPlex 760 workstations … "Dell makes workstations that are solid performers. Great warranty. I've been very lucky with my desktops and had pretty much zero system failures." "Inexpensive, high quality, very dependable." "Bulletproof!"

"The ThinkPad 400s offers familiar ThinkPad advantages like the best-in-class keyboard and build quality and custom add-in software that actually enhances the Windows user experience and combines it with one of the sleekest, lightest and most elegant notebooks ever created. The best news? It's available with an optional multi-touch screen too." —Paul Thurrott, news editor, Windows IT Pro

"Apple’s $1200 13" Macbook Pro is easily the highest-quality notebook I’ve ever used, and as a network engineer I’ve been forced to use everything. Its seven-hour battery life is the real deal, too, not some trumped-up laboratory-only number. I routinely get eight hours working time on my MacBook Pro." —Mel Beckman, contributing editor, SQL Server Magazine

"Now available with SSD drives, LCD backlit screens with desktop-worthy screen resolutions, and switchable discreet graphics while still featuring the awesome ThinkPad keyboard and docking options, the \[ThinkPad T-Series\] packs a punch without weighing you down or breaking the bank." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Dell's Latitude laptops … "Exceptionally lightweight with great battery life." "Just a terrific combination of features and functionality on the road." "A sturdy, reliable performer." Best Hardware: Networking

"While not often receiving the tender, loving care that other IT hardware and software does, in today’s Web 2.0 cloud-compelled IT world, the humble Cisco products are the plumbing that keeps most (if not all) of us afloat in some way, shape, or form. I have yet to meet an IT pro who didn’t have some piece of Cisco gear somewhere in their environment." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Cisco's routers and switches … "I've never had any problems after implementing Cisco gear." "Cisco always offers great support—quick, efficient, and generally knowledgeable about their products." "It simply works."

"If you need to provide remote support to your users on just about any device and don't want to use a cloud-based solution (such as GoToAssist), it's hard to beat a Bomgar Box. Available in several different affordable configurations, it's an overlooked device that should be considered." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"The Bomgar Box is an appliance preloaded with the latest release of the company’s remote support software. The solution enables attended and unattended remote PC access with multi-platform support." —Caroline Marwitz, associate editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Cisco's ASA 5500 series … "One device instead of many devices equals lots of extra cash in the budget." "It performs exquisitely at so many security tasks." "Robust, stable, easy to use." Best IT Automation Product

"Automating the most time consuming and repetitive IT tasks can reap huge benefits for any harried IT professional. Automation Anywhere Enterprise isn't the only IT automation product on the market, but it's unarguably one of the best." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Network Automation AutoMate 7 … "Automates common IT scripting processes via an intuitive, easy-to-use IDE." "I can honestly say that this product has streamlined and simplified my job."

"If you're a systems administrator in charge of managing a diverse assortment of platforms and OSs while simultaneously remaining compliant with complex regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, SOX, and PCI, you should put Centrify Suite 2008 on your shopping list." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"We love Centrify DirectControl. It allows our clients to easily integrate their non-Windows systems into Active Directory (AD), and we can even support AD GPO’s on Linux, UNIX, and Macs!" —Dustin Puryear, IT consultant

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Quest Authentication Services … "Lets us extend AD's security and compliance such that identities from UNIX, Linux, and Mac platforms and enterprise applications can interoperate with AD." "Stellar product, great support." Best Messaging Product

"PROMODAG has been around for a long time and remains the gold standard for Exchange administrators who want to mine message tracking logs for data to help them understand the volume of messages that their servers handle. PROMODAG Reports is a great example of sustained success because they take a source of data that Microsoft has largely ignored and use it to provide an insight that is compelling and valuable for administrators." —Tony Redmond, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"As a mature product, PROMODAG Reports manages reporting for Exchange quite well. The product is simple and it works. It has well over 100 reports and certainly includes all the reports most requested by customers. PROMODAG Reports is an excellent choice for SMBs." —William Lefkovics, contributor, Windows IT Pro

"Windows Server 2008 is undoubtedly the best Windows Server product yet, and serves as a solid foundation to build a Windows IT infrastructure. Server 2008 R2 promises to make this stand-out product an even more stellar performer." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"Microsoft continues to improve the SQL Server platform, and SQL Server 2008 should help Microsoft continue to make inroads into larger and larger enterprise applications." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"Apple has clearly shaken up the smartphone industry, and other smartphone vendors are struggling to reach parity. Cheaper mobile phone solutions exist for the enterprise, but none are having as large of an impact on the mobile enterprise as the iPhone." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

The iPhone 3GS has terrific fit and finish, the web browser is better than anything available on any other mobile device platform, and the UI is polished, fast, and easy to learn." —Paul Robichaux, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Network Instruments continues to be a groundbreaker in the realm of network management, and its Observer monitoring platform—which prides itself on retrospective network analysis (essentially a "TiVo for your network")—is testament to that. The latest version of Observer brings the power of real-time and retrospective network analysis to virtualized environments." —Jason Bovberg, senior editor, Windows IT Pro

"If you've ever dreamed of attaining unprecedented visibility into your network and the devices that connect to it, you need to take a look at Observer. This product just keeps getting better." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Cisco Systems' NetFlow … "More a standard now than a product, it's just the essential information at the heart of network traffic." "Industry standard." Best Patch Management Product

"Shavlik NetChk Protect does a terrific job of automating the patch process, and its scheduler is particularly effective, discovering and deploying patches while constantly monitoring system needs." —Jason Bovberg, senior editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about ScriptLogic's Patch Authority Ultimate … "For the enterprise, there's just nothing more complete." "Lets you accomplish everything you need to do from one central UI."

"PowerShell Plus has features that all types of administrators can use, no matter the type of systems they manage or how well-versed they are in PowerShell. It's a well-rounded IDE." —Karen Bemowski, senior editor, Windows IT Pro

"PowerShell Plus is simply the most effective IDE available. Even if you're a PowerShell expert, you'll benefit from this product's powerful console and script debugger." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Idera's PowerShell Plus … "The library of sample solutions is great to jumpstart some necessary administrative tasks." "Best-of-breed IDE for PowerShell. It's a must-have for PowerShell users." "Best debugging and code completion for PowerShell scripts. Period." Best Security Product

"Livewise Open is a nice Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac integration product that allows for centralized security management from Active Directory and Enterprise single sign-on (ESSO)."—Jan De Clercq, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Likewise Open is a treat to the networking community. The software lets Linux and UNIX systems authenticate to an Active Directory server and is capable of providing single sign-on(SSO) functionality."—Mark Joseph Edwards, senior contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Symantec Endpoint Protection … "It's got the most complete assemblage of functionality and innovation." "Best in class. I use it every day and have never had a virus." "Most comprehensive endpoint security solution on the market today."

"ControlPoint provides the tools and intelligence to help you managing and monitor large farms effectively and integrates well with the existing SharePoint UI; the ability to manage user permission levels is nicely implemented." —Curt Spanburgh, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Quest Software's Site Administrator for SharePoint … "Has helped me completely understand and manage my entire SharePoint environment." "For SharePoint management of servers and sites, it's the best and most comprehensive product out there." Best System Utility

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Symantec's Norton SystemWorks … "I had a sluggish, mostly unresponsive computer, and after letting Norton SystemWorks loose on it, the system is now as fast as it used to be." "I've always had great luck with Norton products."

"Double-Take Move is an impressive, no-fuss solution that has all bases covered; it eliminates the hazards associated with migration to new hardware, uses mature technology with support for locked files, is hardware independent and even captures NTFS alternate data streams and transactions. Applications and users can stay online during migration, and only experience a short disruption in service during cutover." —Russell Smith, contributor, Windows IT Pro

"SmartDeploy is a well thought-out deployment solution. It overcomes one of the major drawbacks of standard disk-imaging solutions—having to create a master image for each hardware platform—by providing Platform Packs to download at no additional cost." —Eric B. Rux, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Symantec's Altiris Client Management Suite … "Out of all the vendors we considered, Symantec offered the most comprehensive capabilities." "By far the best in the market for multi-platform, multi-device client management." "Industry leader." Best Training and Certification Product or Service

"TestOut's LabSim is a true innovator in the IT training and certification space. This online lab technology helps further learning for professionals of all levels. Newcomers to the field can gain a level of hands-on experience on or off campus unlike ever before, and seasoned professionals have easy access to skills-based online training to earn additional certifications or degrees." —Brian Reinholz, training & certification editor, Windows IT Pro

"We feel that between the LabSim materials, the optional textbook TestOut offers, and the online course portal, our students have a very robust online environment that offers a comprehensive and integrated online experience." —Marcus Butler, contributor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about Train Signal's training videos … "Train Signal videos are definitively the building blocks of creating a solid foundation when learning a technology such as Exchange 2007." "Very polished, excellent instruction."

"VMware vSphere 4 has a lot of nice new features, but you can justify the upgrade by the increase in performance alone. We’re seeing performance increases of 20 to 30 percent and in some cases even higher depending on the application with the same hardware." —Alan Sugano, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"NxTop is a complete end-to-end solution that allows you to create and deploy VMs to systems with a management console that helps you keep track of who has what. It also has a remote swipe option so that if a system gets stolen and boots up and connects, the VM evaporates." —J. Peter Bruzzese, contributor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about VMware ESX Server 3.5 … "Simply the most important, sophisticated virtualization product on the market." "It's evolved into such a mature virtualization product!" Best Hardware: Storage

"As the price of SSD drives continue to plummet, you'll need to seriously consider taking the leap. It's the most worthwhile upgrade you can make to any computer system these days, and the Intel drives are amongst the best SSDs available." —Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro

"Intel SSDs—along with the rise of virtualization and the boom in iSCSI SAN adoption—are undoubtedly contributing to a revolution of storage in the enterprise." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"The Drobo is exactly what today's IT pros need—automated, easy-to-use, plug-and-play backup functionality in the form of a cool gadget." —Jason Bovberg, senior editor, Windows IT Pro

Quotes from the Windows IT Pro community about EMC Clariion … "Easy-to-use, affordable networked storage." "The new virtual-aware EMC Clariion is perfect for my VMware environment." "Love the expandability."

"Marathon Technologies' everRun VM is a snap to deploy, is easy to use, and is loaded with features. If you need to protect your virtual infrastructure from an unforeseen mistake or mishap, everRun VM is a great choice." —Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro

"I really like the simplified approach that everRun HA takes to server availability: The completely automated setup and configuration makes it a unique product in the arena." —Jason Bovberg, senior editor, Windows IT Pro

Discuss this Article 1

It is good if you people are doing such activity.
Spiceworks is good tool. I herd from many people about it now I will definitely use it.
__________________________
<a href="http://www.besttrucksforsale.net/" title="Lifted Nissan Trucks For Sale">Lifted Nissan Trucks</a>

Microsoft Stack Master Class

Understand the complete Microsoft solution stack, how the products work together, and how to implement and maintain for a total datacenter and desktop solution. This course covers the latest technology updates including Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 and will enable the new capabilities to be leveraged in your organization.